The Cry of the Phoenix
by morpherkidvb
Summary: My first Harry Potter fic. In Harry's seventh year, he is called to Dumbledore's office... He is swept into Albus's childhood memories and ultimatly discovers the key to defeating Voldemort... G for now, but it'll change. Please read and review. Ch. 2 up!
1. The Phoenix and the Wizard

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The Cry of the Phoenix

Chapter One

Morpherkidvb

A/N- Just read it, ok? Please? Researching Dumblydore's life was not easy work, and I want to continue this, if not for the fact that I want to have some use for that… Thanks!

"Professor?" 

Harry Potter walked tentatively into Dumbledore's homely office, and was surprised to find his mentor nowhere in sight. He had been called there, hadn't he? Yes, he remembered, because he had been talking to Ron, Ginny, and Hermione right before in the common room…

Professor Dumbledore looked up at him from a tacky purple loveseat and smiled effortfully, as if the gesture would drain all the life out of him. 

"Hello…" He paused for a minute, gave a feeble cough, and continued, "… Harry. Would y-you please walk to the c-cabinet and get my pensieve? "

The last word was said with a sigh of something a bit like relief, and Harry, quite apprehensively, did as he was bidden without a sound. 

"Thank you, Mr. Potter. You may sit down, of course, yes, that's fine, wherever you like. " 

Harry sat down in a hard leather-backed chair, worrying. This state of Dumbledore's… it was scary, it made the sparkly mentor look a thousand years old, ancient and decrepted… 

"Professor Dumbledore, should I, err, go for Madame Pomfrey or something?" 

"No, Harry, that won't be necessary. " Dumbledore smiled, having the Pensieve near him seemed to relieve him. Fawkes the phoenix screeched softly, smoldering quietly, perched on the high wooden desk near the entrance, breaking the silence.

Harry watched Fawkes for a couple of minutes, then turned his attention to Dumbledore, who was using the pensieve. The headmaster pointed his wand at his own head, muttered _remno_, and closed his eyes. Silvery wisps of the same stuff (there was no other word for it) that was in the Pensieve itself entered the stone bowl. 

Dumbledore put his wand down, and his appearance seemed to shift slightly, his face contorting into a sort of relief and sorrow at the same time. 

Harry self-consciously turned his eyes to Fawkes, stroking his withering breast feathers gently. Dumbledore sat up as if he had just noticed the 17-year old wizard was there. 

"Harry Potter, " Dumbledore said as a way of invitation. Harry turned and leaned in towards the headmaster, staring straight at him, his words soft but his expression demanding. 

"Yes? You called me here? " 

" Harry, you are about to leave Hogwarts, am I correct?"

"Yes, sir." Harry's mind strayed to his seventh year, which had given him both a spot as head boy and also (to Ron's great envy) a fourth Quidditch Cup. 

"Well, I have something for you, a sort of going away present." 

"Sir, you don't have to…" Harry shifted uncomfortably in his seat.

"Harry, this is not something I want you to refuse, if that is alright. It is not exactly a gift that one can buy; no matter how many Galleons one has… It is just something to help you better understand why these things have happened…"

Dumbledore's eyes twinkled briefly, his blue eyes shining into Harry's green ones. He held the oddly decorated bowl out to Harry like an offering. 

"You, if I remember have been inside my memories before? "

Knowing the answer, he went on, while Harry pondered the time in his fourth year when he had seen the trials of accused Death Eaters through his headmaster's eyes. The thought of the Death Eaters brought him back to the current situation, and he refocused his attention to Dumbledore. 

"Well, this time I am actually giving you permission to do so. I need you to be able to understand things… the Dark Lord is still out there, Harry, and I think that this journey will help you…

"When you arrive back from the pensieve, you will find that only five minutes have passed. That will give you…" He consulted his odd celestial wristwatch, " …exactly three and a half minutes to make it down to the Leaving feast. Understood?" 

Harry nodded solemnly; he didn't feel as he had much of a choice. 

He walked over to retrieve the Pensieve, then remembered something. 

"Sir, last time I, erm, saw your memories, you had to bring me back to your office. Is there anyway I can do that, well, of my own accord, just in case? " 

Dumbledore smiled. 

"Very wise, Harry, to learn from the past. And very wise also, to remind me of my little invention. "

Ceremoniously he pulled out of his cloak a device that looked very much like a Muggle television remote control. It had four triangular buttons arranged in a rectangular pattern and two other buttons beneath it. It was about eight centimeters long and fit exactly into a robe pocket. 

"I call it a _Permutor, _from the Latin for change, " said Dumbledore, seeing the quizzical look on Harry's face. "It works, not surprisingly, very much like a Muggle television remote control. These two buttons," he explained, pointing to the buttons forming the left and right of the rectangle, "control backward or forward movement."

"Fast forward and rewind, " Harry translated. 

"Exactly. And these two, the top and bottom ones there, can pause or replay a chunk of memory, and these two different ones can get you out of the Pensieve entirely, or get you back in again. Did you get all that?" 

Harry took a few seconds to commit these facts to memory, then took the Permutor in his right hand and the Pensieve in his left. 

"All right sir, I've got it. I'll see you then, in, err, about five minutes? " 

"Good luck, Harry Potter, " smiled Dumbledore fatherly. 

Harry nodded and smiled back nervously, then looked straight into the swirling Pensieve and was sucked in. 

Dumbledore turned to Fawkes and said in a low voice, " Good boy, that Harry. Just like his father…" 

The old man smiled again and closed his eyes. Soon the only sound in the room as the cry of the Phoenix, as he burst into flame and prepared to be reborn. 

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A/N- Whew! The next chapter's twice as long, and it'll take me a long time to type, so the faster I get inspiration to type it, the better… in other words, please review! 


	2. Acceptance Day

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The Cry of the Phoenix

Chapter Two

Morpherkidvb

A/N- Thanks T.G. Stewart for the review- I guess Harry Potter moves quickly- I got a review an hour after I posted! And this in chapter you actually see a bit of Dumbledore's life, which was extremely fun to write! Starts out when Albus is eleven.

Harry landed rather hard on the pavement, rolled a meter or two, and stood up. He checked his robe pockets for his wand and the _permutor_, a habit he had picked up ever since training with Alastor Moody in his fifth year. 

He surveyed the scene properly and had begun to examine the house when he suddenly recognized it. He swung his eyes to the house number to be sure… and there it was. The number four was written in green paint right above the mail slot. 

He was standing right outside his Aunt and Uncle's house on Privet Drive. 

He had a wild thought that he had just woken up and that his time at Hogwarts was just part of a very intricate dream. But of course, he realized he was inside Dumbledore's memory. _Maybe_, he thought excitedly, _he was going to see the day he was brought to here… _

Knowing he couldn't be seen or heard, but not sure if he could be felt, he slipped cautiously into the house. 

Harry gave a laugh as he thought of what Uncle Vernon would have thought of his normal, average house now. 

A huge Hogwarts crest hung from the back wall, and popped wizard crackers were strewn all over the living room floor. Several owls were perched on a post that had been added to the rafters, and all of them hooted loudly as five abnormally large chocolate frogs began hopping around the room. In the middle of the room there was a large chocolate cake with messy white icing reading 'Happy Acceptance Day' in sloppy red gel. 

And there, amidst the confusion and mess, were two boys excitingly swapping chocolate frog cards on the multicolored knit rug. 

One boy looked to Harry to me around ten, or maybe eleven. He was tall, with deep blue eyes that were boring into the other boy's. The boy sitting across from the younger one was around twelve. He was the same height as the blond boy, but he had dark hair and eyes. 

Harry stepped closer and heard their voices. 

"Alberforth, you codfish, you're trying to cheat me! You know Morgana is not worth a Ptomly, let alone a Ptomly with a Circe attached!" 

"Aww, come on, Albus, I was jus' playin'! How's about a…"

But Harry didn't hear the rest of it; he was too busy being confused. Albus? Had the older boy just called the younger one Albus? The answer finally dawned on him- Dumbledore had lived in this house! The coincidence was too great for Harry to pass over- he said aloud, "Well, I reckon this place must be a bit less boring than I expected- I wouldn't be surprised if Minister Weasley made it a monument!" 

He turned back to the boys' conversation, where Alberforth was now trying to sell his Cloidna card for three Sickles. 

Alberforth… that was the name of Dumbledore's brother, wasn't it? The one who was fined for practicing illegal charms on a goat? Must be…

But in sixth year Dumbledore had said something about another brother and sister- where were they? 

Conveniently, a tall slender young witch around twelve or thirteen chose this moment to walk down the stairs, carrying a large sparrow. 

"Mum!" she called, and Harry had to hastily step aside to avoid being plowed into as she walked towards him. He wasn't sure what would happen- maybe the girl would walk right through him! He shuddered at the thought. 

"Mum!" she called again.

An answering call of, "Yes, honey?" was heard from the kitchen. Harry followed the young girl and the sparrow into the kitchen and found it strongly reminded him of the Weasley household- magical cooking instruments around a counter and a cauldron boiling over a nonexistent flame. A tall, broad witch in deep blue robes was making a book called, 'Magical Concoctions for Every Occasion' float at eye level with her wand (_wingardium leviosa_, thought Harry) and holding a metal stirring spoon in her other hand. 

The girl, still carrying the sparrow, walked in and begged her mother, " Please, Mum, oh please, can I keep him? She held out the sparrow for her mother, then hastily put in back near her. "Please?"

Mrs. Dumbledore (for who else could she be? Harry reasoned) considered for a long moment. "Well…" she said finally, "as long as you learn a proper silencing charm and put it on him thing at night, lord knows I need some sleep…" The girl squealed with delight and skipped back up the stairs, bird clutched securely to her breast. 

A loud thump was heard coming from the direction of the garden- Harry caught sound of Mrs. Dumbledore muttering to herself, "Must be Aermanzo again, that boy, always killing himself with that broomstick…" She swooped off towards the back door, growling about dangerous sports. 

"Aria! Watch the younger two for a minute, ok? I've got to see to your older brother again…" The girl grumbled down the stairs with her sparrow and sat down to watch the boys trade cards. 

Harry stumbled, trying to keep up with Mrs. Dumbledore as she threw open the back doors to reveal a mangled blond boy of about sixteen being helped by a black-haired boy up from under a wild broomstick. Harry laughed when he read the inscription- Comet 180. "Ancient history", he said aloud, 'no wonder the kid crashed." 

The boy was now being scolded furiously by his mother, while his friend slunk off towards the gate. A nod from the boy and the black-haired kid left quickly before he could be reprimanded as well. Meanwhile, the blond boy was clutching his broomstick tightly as his mother gave a scolding worthy of a Howler. 

"Aermanzo Dumbledore, I swear, if you ever, ever do anything like that again, I'll put a locking charm on that for the rest of the year! " 

Aermanzo shrugged. "Mum, come on, I've got to practice- without Quidditch, Hufflepuff doesn't have a chance for the house cup! "

'I don't care if Hufflepuff house is about to be eaten by dragons- don't do that again, look what you've done to the shrubbery…"

Two extremely confused gnomes wandered out of what had been a rosemary bush and began stumbling around. 

"Look, Mum, I've de-Gnomed for you!"

Exasperated, Mrs. Dumbledore stomped back toward the kitchen, calling back to Aermanzo over her shoulder. 

"Well, come wash up for supper then- we're having Albus's favorite because he just got accepted to school…"

"Mum, everyone in our family has gone for ages…"

"And everyone has gotten an Acceptance Day party. You didn't think it was unfair when you had yours, did you? "

Haughtily, Mrs. Dumbledore whisked back to the kitchen. Harry stayed outside long enough to watch Aermanzo shoulder his broom and brush dirt off his knees, then went inside. 

He wanted desperately to eat with the family- the Leaving Feast had been right after his visit to Dumbledore's office and it felt like forever ago. However, he didn't know if he could interfere with the memory. If it was like the Time-Turner, he couldn't do much without being seen. But it could be like watching a Muggle video- what will happen is inevitable and is the same every time. 

Harry decided he might as well find out- it would be better than guessing wrong and tripping up in the middle of something important. He went over to the cabinet over the fireplace and tried to pull it open. He couldn't. He tapped Mrs. Dumbledore, who was now humming a lively ditty to herself, on the shoulder. Nothing. He tried kicking the table and nothing moved. He tried using the stunning spell on Aria, who had just entered the room with her younger brothers to wash in the sink. Nothing. 

An uneasy feeling settled in Harry's stomach- he didn't like being helpless; it made him feel angry and a good bit queasy. But at least he could move around and stuff, he reasoned. 

He sat down in an extra chair near the table as the family set the table. 

Alberforth and Albus quibbled over who should get the lucky blue plate, and Aria begged to be able to feed her sparrow, whom she had named Merlyn, her leftover scraps. The whole scene looked very odd to Harry, who could never have imagined such a likable and lively family as this living at such an insipid place as Privet Drive. 

The family sat down to dinner and ate heartily, with sploshes of conversation in between gulps of beef, tomato, and oregano stew and hunks of wheat rolls. 

"Yeah, I sent my friend Josep an owl, but he still hasn't answer…"

"And he tried to get me to give him a Ptomly for a Morgana, the git…"

"And I can't believe she said that! I mean, of all things…"

"Albus, don't talk about your brother like that…"

"I dunno what to feed Merlyn, he chirps all the time and he's hungry…"

" Yeah, come off it, Albus, 'twas only a joke…"

Soon most of the stew was devoured, and Mrs. Dumbledore, with a ceremonial _accio_, summoned the huge cake from the living room. 

The acceptance cake landed neatly in the center of the small table, and immediately it began being dished out. 

"I want the corner piece!"

"See, that one there, with the frosting? I want that one!"

"No fair, she always gets the corner pieces, I want that one!"

Mrs. Dumbledore put an end to that by saying that since it was Albus's acceptance day; he should get to choose his piece first. 

"Erm… how 'bout that one, with the frosting and the red stuff, no, not that one, the other one, yeah." 

He dug in, his brothers and sister dug in soon afterwards. 

Harry marveled at the scene- he, having never had a birthday cake from his family, was beginning to quite envy Dumbledore. 

When they had all eaten to the point of bloating, Mrs. Dumbledore banished the cake to the icebox and hurried them to bed. 

"Chop chop, men and women, we've all got to go down to Diagon Alley tomorrow, and this time we have to buy four sets of things, so get some sleep!"

Harry watched Albus Dumbledore climb the stairs into the room that was the guestroom in Harry's time. Albus read for a couple of minutes, then turned off the lights by saying _nox_. The boy fell asleep immediately as Harry was, totally unexpectedly, was surrounded by a silver mist and disappeared from sight. 

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A/N- Ok. Now the little box on the bottom that ensures you weren't wasting your time, please. Thanks. 


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